In my yard I do a few things things to enjoy both my hobbies of general gardening and butterfly gardening: 1. I plant WAY more parsley and fennel than I could ever consume. So that way I have some for me and the caterpillars. 2. I move caterpillars from the veggies I am going to eat to a few I don't mind sacrificing. 3. I apply Bt in small targeted amounts. I have an Angel trumpet that would just get decimated if I did not occasionally apply Bt to it. This plant is isolated away from other butterfly plants. 4. Sorry, I am not a fan of Tomato hornworms or the moths they develop into. When I find those caterpillars on my tomatoes they go to the chickens. It is always a dilemma when two hobbies collide!

I have used window screen, too. It works well. Kwie - all of my landscaping is with river rock, except for the required lawn. I have small pea gravel size, medium size and large rocks for a border. I grab some of it for top dressing. They sell bags of it at HD and Lowes. It is very dirty - muddy, really. You have to wash it well. And it does get hot in the Florida summer sun. I've burned myself pulling weeds without a beach towel to sit on. But I have not noticed it damaging any of the plants. If you don't want 25 lbs. of river rock, they also sell smaller bags of soil cover. Some is quite attractive. I bought some called "pearl stone" that are white, clean and look nice. I haven't noticed if they are hot in the summer. I didn't notice my lava rock feeling hot, either, tho. Maybe that's because I didn't sit on them! LOL

In stark contrast to bevangel's take on the economy based on the new postings, here is the reality for us in WV: nothing will appraise in this market, so it looks like we are done. We had one plan and got a low appraisal, so we downsized and cut back on the high-end items to make the numbers work only to be told by the bank (small regional) that they weren't writing construction loans any more (of course, after we jumped through their hoops). Took it to another bank who was working with our builder and said it would work, shouldn't be a problem, and now the appraisal is $85K less, in just one month. Despite our rebutting what we thought were obvious flaws and mistakes (e.g., using an 18-year old log house and not adjusting for age/condition; land value comps using small unrestricted lots advertising "double-wides welcome"; not using 2 recent MLS land sales at prices similar to what we paid), they mumbled something about it being a less than perfect process and the number was not changing. I guess those already building have a different market or more cash than we do. If you have a plan, but haven't had an appraisal done, better sit down and think about a plan B. In hindsight, I guess I should have done more due diligence than relying on the "experts", builder, banker, etc., who were all optimistic; never a "we might quit doing construction loans, depending on market conditions in the next few months". I have another builder friend who said he has had five new house projects also fail b/c of the low appraisals. So, we will have to decide whether to hold on and hope it gets better within 2-3 years, of course at much higher interest rates and probably build costs, or settle for a good deal on something for sale and eventually sell the lot we like so much to at least break even. Sorry for the Debby Downer rant, but that is our reality. Thanks for all the great advice, comments, place to vent, and maybe it will all work out. If anyone has any ideas on how to beat the system, I'm all ears. Good luck to all!

Ditto on checking the roof, particularly the chimney flashing. Most of the damage sounds water related. Depending on how bad the cracking is, it could be from many causes. My bet is that the renovation covered up lots of surface defects with patching and heavy coats of paint. Now the real surface is coming through. Other causes could be structural changes the prior renovators undertook, normal or abnormal settlement, or simply repainting the plaster in a lighter colour that highlights the natural imperfections.